This post contains non-graphic descriptions of killing household pests from a phobic point of view.
My severe phobia of bugs means that it is necessary for any bugs in my home to be eliminated, but renders me too squeamish to touch them directly or indirectly. So my standard approach is to spray the bug with Raid or something similar to kill it, then to vacuum up the corpse. However, sometimes circumstances make it impossible to spray it with Raid first (if it's on the ceiling, if it's flying around, if I'm startled and the vacuum is closer than the Raid), so I end up vacuuming a live bug.
The internet tells me that the trauma of being vacuumed will kill a bug, and the internet tells me that the trauma of being vacuumed won't kill a bug. So, as a precautionary measure, if I vacuum a live bug, I spray Raid down the vacuum after it, then block the opening to the vacuum for 24 hours. I've been doing this for 13 years, and have yet to see any evidence that the bugs survive the process.
But it occurred to me in the shower that the makers of vacuum bags could help people like me by selling vacuum bags with insecticide on the inside. If a bug gets vacuumed up, it is automatically poisoned to death.
In addition to helping people who vacuum up bugs as part of their home pest control approach, this would also help regular people by killing things like bedbugs, fleas, dust mites etc. It would make sure that they get killed in the natural course of housework, resulting in a healthier living environment for everyone. They could also add antibacterials and germicide to help kill everything before it escapes the vacuum bag.
Some might object to the introduction of additional poisonous chemicals into the household. However, putting the insecticides inside the vacuum bag would reduce the need to spray them around the home, so they're less likely to end up in the air you breathe or in your food. On top of that, they can totally continue to sell non-insecticide vacuum bags for people who aren't interested in using their vacuum as a bug-killing machine.
We already have the precedent of introducing not-strictly-necessary chemicals into household cleaning products for psychological purposes. For example, anti-bacterial toilet cleaners are a thing that exists, even though everyone is going to treat even a freshly-cleaned toilet as a contaminated surface anyway. So why not give us the option of treated vacuum bags, and address the psychological needs of people with one of the most common phobias? I'd even gladly pay extra for it!
1 comment:
This reminds me of the time my dad and I cleared out a yellow jacket nest with a shop vac. Spent about two hours on it. Had about 10 feet of straight extensions at the end of the hose, and the cone shaped fitting at the end. Placed it about 2 inches behind entrance to the nest, which was a small hole in the mortar between the bricks. Intercepted the (mostly) inbound and outbound traffic. Started out with a little thud every 10-15 seconds. By the time we went a full minute without any catches, put a caulk bead on it. We were very scared to turn off the vac; basically just put a sock in it. Can or two of RAID™ would have been more humane I suppose. Regret.
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